ECB: still confident

The ECB is still confident. That is the message from Mario Draghi’s press conference following the Governing Council meeting: confident in the growth outlook where softer survey data point towards a loss of momentum rather than a downturn; confident in the inflation outlook based on the increase of negotiated wages, increasing labour market tightness and high levels of capacity utilisation; confident as well in the transmission of the accommodative monetary policy, judging by the evolution of credit growth. Finally, the ECB president has expressed his personal confidence that between Rome and Brussels a solution will be found on the Italian budget. This confidence however is based on good common sense, rather than on concrete evidence yet.